A quagmire of green (greed?)

The doo-doo seems to have hit the fan, and it's splattering everywhere.

It's so hard to make sense of the chaos of current events without turning into a pundit. Nevertheless, it's also hard to turn a blind eye to the calamity in the U.S. economy right now; especially given the degree to which H.R. 1424 seems to have done for Paulson what the Iraq Resolution did for Bush (well, Cheney, probably). And we all know how well that went, don't we?

I'm generally a fan of government intervention when it's apparent that problems won't fix themselves; that's, after all, why we agree to pay taxes. However, I'm distraught at what appears to be the greatest deliberate pillage of average U.S. citizens in a very long time (if not ever).

In defense of fat cats, reckless debt habits on everyone's part (personal and industrial) have gotten us here, for certain. I'd also wager that equally reckless ignorance and apathy by common folks is another major factor. After all, if most people had been educated enough to look behind the curtain of fear, reactionism, and propaganda during the better part of the last decade, there would have been no mandate to approve our ridiculous excursion into Iraq – undoubtedly one of the stupidest maneuvers this country has ever performed, and no doubt something that will affect our economic and world standing for at least an entire generation.

By the way, I don't think that's hyperbole. These things cause ripples, and it's been frustrating to no end for the last seven years to bear witness to.

But chief on my list of concerns at the moment is how the trouble with the U.S. economy will now affect the global markets. It already is. Part of me says this is a good thing, and that it will weed out the thieves and scumbags from the equation and cause people to be much smarter and judicious investors.

Still, this will take time. A long time. And we're not out of the woods yet. Hold on to your bootstraps...if you've got any boots left.